God Provides

 Hello friends!!

    Thank you for taking the time to read what has been going on at UNT, TWU and in my ministry. I really appreciate the support you give me financially or otherwise. God has been using this apprenticeship through the classes and relationships to teach me many things about who He is and what it means to be His. 

The sunset the first night of our winter camp. God's creation is beautiful!

    Every year FOCUS has its annual winter camp the weekend before classes start back up. Which give bless the ministry in lots of ways. It gives students who are coming from out of town an opportunity to come back just a few days early and join, it excites people about ministry going into the semester and allows people to rest in community before jumping into a busy semester. Praise God for providing this opportunity, especially in a year where it seemed uncertain! There were so many people getting cases, even the Sky Ranch Staff had to have a last minute day of meeting to see if they were going to be able to run camp. Thankfully they had enough people to operate the kitchen and were able to make it happen. God is good!

There is nothing like worshipping God with 400 other people  

    
    This year we were blessed to have a professor from Regent Seminary College in Canada (Rikk Watts) come speak to us about how our culture has been largely shaped by Jesus and the role Hellenism has played in shaping the way we tend to think. It was a good jump start for me in my apprentices as we a few days later jumped deeper into world history through our New testament class. Learning how philosophy and theology has changed through the years and what it meant for the Jews and Early Christians has given me so much context I had no idea I was missing. Just the other day I learned that Rikk enjoyed being at winter camp with us so much that he wants to join the weekly New Testament class for an hour of Q+A every week!! I am so excited for all the learning to come this semester!

One of the UNT guys small groups at camp

    With the new semester in ministry just like seasons in life change can come unexpectedly. One of the guys that I met early this school year during welcome week came to winter camp and wants to take a more purposeful role in my small group going forward. While some of the other guys are seemingly not going to come back to the group. But God again was faithful by providing four new students this past week who want to join the rest of our guys in learning more about Jesus and scripture! Praise God with me about these new guys and pray with me that He work through FOCUS to bring these guys closer to him. Also, please be praying that we would be be able to find a spot on TWU's campus for a guy who is in a wheelchair and can only meet there. He came to our meeting over zoom due to the weather and he loved it!

Our Small group Zoom meeting inside where its warm

    Lastly, I would like to invite you to come to FOCUS' Spring Showcase on February 26th at 2:30 or 6:30 PM. This is a showcase of all the best talents in the larger FOCUS community that serves as a fundraiser to send students eager to learn more about being a disciple and reaching their fellow students to a week long campus ministry conference in Washington. There will be an art sale in between the shows where you can buy things like coffee, wood works, pottery, art, and plants to support as well! You can find more information through this link and image below or by texting or emailing me. 

anyfocus.org/showcase

You are loved, 

Cole